


speak now (or forever hold your peace)

by EVIESDRAGON



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, F/F, Song: Speak Now (Taylor Swift), evie interrupts the wedding :D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:01:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29402364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EVIESDRAGON/pseuds/EVIESDRAGON
Summary: - What does one do when their best friend’s most important day arrives? One should be happy, right? -(or a little piece inspired by speak now by taylor swift as part of a valentine's day project)(A MALVIE / MEVIE ONE SHOT)
Relationships: Evie/Mal (Disney)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37





	speak now (or forever hold your peace)

What does one do when their best friend’s most important day arrives? One should be happy, right?

It’s not every day that one’s best friend gets married. Truly a remarkable milestone. At least that what Evie had heard her whole life. That she should aim for marriage with a prince and settle into that life. That she should be happy and praise others who did the same.

And yet, as she made her way to the biggest wedding Auradon had ever seen, her heart ached and happiness was the furthest from what she was feeling. Not that anyone could tell, of course. And if anyone did, she had a perfectly good excuse for it. The Royal Wedding apparently was too good and too mighty for Evie to be Mal’s maid of honor. She huffed. She didn’t get to design Mal’s wedding dress. She didn’t get to see Mal at all. She couldn’t even stand up front during the ceremony.

Now that Evie really thought of it, she’s not sure being upfront was the most solid idea.

How could Evie be happy to see Mal marry a boy she knew deep in her heart she didn’t love? Marry into a life she never wanted for herself? Marry at the young age of nineteen?

How could Evie feel happy to see the girl she’s been in love with her whole life marry someone else?

“Ready?”

Carlos. He had been standing next to her this whole time, wearing a suit she made. She hadn’t noticed.

_No._

“Yeah.” Evie replied instead.

She felt Jay’s hand on hers. Then Carlos’ on her other hand. That’s how they walked inside the church. Like they did everything else. Together.

Were they really together, though?

Carlos and Jay hadn’t seen Mal either. None of them got to be a part of the process. Evie couldn’t help but feel their little family was somehow broken and after Mal went through with sealing her fate, broken it would remain.

Evie wasn’t the kind of girl to make a scene or to ruin a ceremony, especially not the single most important one Auradon had seen in the past century.

**_(I am not the kind of girl, who should be rudely barging in on a white veil occasion)_ **

But then again, Mal was not the kind of girl that would marry the wrong person. Mal wasn’t the kind of girl that would marry at all, actually.

It was all so wrong; it felt like a fever dream. A joke from the universe.

**_(But you are not the kind of boy, who should be marrying the wrong girl)_ **

“It’s okay if you’re not. Ready, I mean.” Jay whispered in her ear as they took their seats. No, she was definitely not ready for it.

Evie didn’t sit down just yet and wandered around, maybe trying to catch a glimpse of Mal.

She took in everything around her. In theory, the church looked absolutely marvelous. The signature Auradon colors of yellow and blue, the colors of the Crown were the main theme and they flooded the entire building. To Evie it felt like a torture chamber and she was the one being held against her will. Her own personal hell, a nightmare that she could never wake up from.

And there was no sign of Mal.

Instead, Evie looked back to see Jay and Carlos chatting with a cheerful Jane, an even more cheerful Lonnie and a dazzling looking Belle. Her dress was of a pastel yellow and it fit her like a glove. It all felt so wrong, it made Evie clench her jaw.

**_(I sneak in and see your friends, and her snotty little family all dressed in pastel)_ **

She then heard voices coming from some room. She couldn’t pin point exactly which but froze in place when she recognized Ben’s voice.

Evie couldn’t understand what was being said and only had time to duck and hide when she caught a glimpse of a blonde tall woman in a boring plain pastel dress storming off the room closest to her. Former King Adam stopped her in her tracks. He was towering over her and she seemed upset that his son had rudely dismissed her.

**_(And she is yelling at a bridesmaid, somewhere back inside a room)_ **

Evie dragged her feet (figuratively speaking, those heels took too long to make for her to actually ruin them) back to where Jay and Carlos were sitting down with a feeling of emptiness in her chest. She was sure Mal didn’t even know who that woman was. Apparently neither did Ben. It made her angry. This wedding wasn’t on their own terms. It was merely political. A way to look good and appeal to union and new beginnings. What Mal and Ben wanted was never considered. Mal’s dress was chosen for her. Everything was chosen for her.

**_(Wearing a gown shaped like a pastry, this is surely not what you thought it would be)_ **

She could barely remember the route she took, how the church looked or what she had just witnessed. She barely noticed as Ben took his place at the altar. It was all a big blur to her and she just wanted to disappear.

Evie wondered what would happen if she just stood up and asked Mal to stop what she was doing. What if Evie asked Mal **to run away with her**? Somewhere far away, where no one could follow. They could **meet by the back door** and never be seen again.

What if Evie asked Mal to not say a single vow? What if Evie actually asked Mal to hear her out? Would that change anything? Everything? Or nothing at all? Who knows?

She lost herself in all the _‘what if’_ questions. But they were nothing but a **daydream** that existed just to mock her. A cruel way to remind herself that she was a coward. That she was too late. That she never stood a chance. That whatever pretty scenario she came up with only existed in her head. It wasn’t real. _It would never be._

**_(I lose myself in a daydream…)_ **

Evie was rudely jolted back to reality by the devilish sound of the organ playing, that boomed in the most haunting and gruesome way possible in the now quiet church. She never thought she could ever hate that song but it was ringing in a very disturbing way in her ears, almost as if they were bleeding. It felt like the soundtrack to a **death march**. If Carlos was looking worriedly at her, she must have missed it. If Jay was holding her hand, well, she must have missed that too.

Because for the first time in weeks, she was looking at Mal. Mal who was walking inside the church, with a nervous look in her face, in a wedding dress that didn’t quite fit her and a veil that obnoxiously hid her beautiful purple hair. And yet, Mal was the most beautiful human she had ever set eyes on.

_Mal was walking down the aisle and Evie couldn’t breathe._

Evie almost felt like she was there **uninvited** because of how little she actually knew about the ceremony. She remembered Ben letting her know that the reason Mal hadn’t asked her to be Maid of Honor was because the Crown had chosen one that suited the event and there was nothing they could do about it. It made her angry, that the King himself was telling her he couldn’t do anything about a situation they both knew he could control.

It was almost like Ben had told her not to attend at all.

**_(It seems that I was uninvited by your lovely bride to be)_ **

And now Mal was looking at him as the walk to the altar was turning into a painfully slow moment. Evie knew Mal wished this wasn’t happening. Or at least, she wished it would be happening differently.

**_(You wish it was me, Don't you?)_ **

****

****

Things went from happening in slow motion to happening excessively fast for Evie’s liking. Mal went from walking to standing in front of Ben.

The damning song replaced with a deafening and horrendous silence (Evie couldn’t decide which one was worst) and expectant looks from all of the people inside. Evie couldn’t breathe again.

The priest’s voice was heard. It began. He spoke words Evie had memorized very much against her will. She knew them by heart, supposedly to prepare her for her own wedding. Never in a million years had she thought she’d feel so bad at a wedding. Evie felt dizzy, sick to her stomach and for the first time that day, she was grateful she wasn’t sitting up front. Yet she still wasn’t sure if she could handle staying until the end.

That was it. There was nothing she could do. Evie had lost Mal.

**_(Your time is running out)_ **

“Eves?”

Carlos whispered from her left, worry gracing his starry face. Evie couldn’t look anywhere else but to where Mal was standing. This could not really be it, could it? She knew exactly what that priest was going to say next and it scared her. She awaited and welcomed those words with nothing but fear. _Fear of what she might do._

“Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

**_(There's the silence, there's my last chance)_ **

“What are you doing?”

Evie heard Jay’s voice from somewhere and it took her a while to understand the reason for the question.

Her hands were shaking and she was standing up. _She stood up._

_Oh, God._

Everyone around her looked mortified and horrified gasps and accusatory whispers filled the room. Evie didn’t care. Her eyes were on Mal. Mal who was looking back at her for the first time in weeks and Evie couldn’t read her.

It didn’t matter. She was standing up now and there was no turning back. She left her spot to stand in the blue carpet, right in the middle of the church. The whispering became louder for a second but then it died out. No matter how awfully they were thinking of Evie, everyone wanted to hear what she had to say.

**_(Horrified looks from everyone in the room, but I'm only looking at you)_ **

“Mal?” Her voice was shaky but she could feel the fear vanish from her. Even if Mal herself turned on her after this, she could (try to) live with that. She realized she didn’t regret what she was doing.

Mal stood there, silent and lips partially opened. Her eyes, her beautiful green eyes stayed on Evie.

“You need to hear me out. It might be selfish of me to do this but… I have to. I have to because this isn’t right and I think you know. Deep down you know this is wrong,"

Adam was ready to get up and put an end to her speech but she heard the priest calmly tame him.

_‘She has the right to speak. Let her finish’_ , Evie heard him say. It gave her even more confidence to keep going. To deliver a speech she never planned to give but that she rehearsed a million times in her head.

“Don’t say your vows. You don’t mean them. Don’t say yes. You don’t want to,” She continued. The silence didn’t feel so heavy anymore. “You’re forgetting why we came here in the first place… To have a choice. Can you honestly say this was your choice? Because the Mal I know likes to spray paint on walls and do headstand races with her friends until she’s on the grass laughing so hard there’s tears in her eyes,”

Ben looked at Evie in a weird way but one she could understand. He wasn’t so sure about any of this either but he couldn’t show it, as the King of Auradon.

“You’ve always walked around with the weight of the world on your shoulders,” Evie smiled sadly. “You think you owe it to Ben, to the kingdom to get married today. You don’t. You don’t owe anything to anyone. But you owe it to yourself to do what makes you happy. If I’m wrong then I apologize for ruining what otherwise would be a lovely day. But…I had to say it. And I can’t be here anymore.”

Evie took one last look at Mal, who looked puzzled, entirely lost in thought before turning around and walking out of the church. Her feet hurt so she took off her heels and walked through the grass while barefoot until she reached the riverside.

She sat down and felt her heart pounding aggressively against her ribcage, only then really taking in what she had just done. Or what she hadn’t done.

“You didn’t even tell her…” She mumbled to herself, throwing a rock into the water.

No one else left the church for a while which meant the ceremony had continued. Like her intervention had never happened. It would’ve been easy to just cut her out of the transmission and pretend like the Perfect Wedding had never been interrupted. She had said all that for nothing. It was all in vain.

“…E?”

There was her favorite voice in the whole world. Evie took a moment to take a deep breath, praying to god that it wasn’t just her mind playing tricks on her before turning around.

Nevertheless, there was Mal.

Her hair was a mess, like someone had pulled at it to take off the veil and everything in between until all that was left was her wild purple hair at its finest. It reminded Evie of what Mal’s hair looked like back on the Isle. The dress was also gone, replaced by the clothes Mal had on the night before. Not that Evie had seen her but she knew. A tie-dye hoodie and shorts. Whatever heels Mal previously had on were also gone and replaced by nothing. She was also barefoot.

“Mal?” Evie tried, quietly. Barely a whisper. “What are you doing h—“

Evie didn’t get to finish. Because Mal walked over to her until distance wasn’t a thing and she closed the final gap, grabbing Evie’s face and placing her lips on Evie’s.

Evie had wished for this moment her entire life but never in her wildest dreams had she thought it would come, especially not when Mal was to be married to another. It was hard to put into words what she was feeling, what kissing Mal felt like. But she knew she didn’t want it to end.

“I didn’t say my vows…” Mal whispered as she pulled away slowly, studying every inch of Evie’s face.

“Mal, I—“

“Let me finish,” Mal shook her head. She pulled Evie closer and basked on the little blush that came with that action. “I never wanted any of that. I thought I had to. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I didn’t want to disappoint you. I didn’t think you’d…” Mal trailed off for a moment.

“I do,” Evie rested her forehead on Mal’s and watched as her eyes closed.

“A very smart girl once told me I owed it to myself to do what makes me happy…And you make me happy, E,”

“You make me happy too, M,” Evie replied, her voice trembling from all the emotions she was feeling. “What now? What about… all that?” She then wondered.

“We’ll figure it out,” Mal shrugged. “If you’ll take me, that is,”

Evie smiled. The first genuine smile in weeks.

“Come here,” Evie pulled Mal in for a hug. “Of course I do.”

“I’m glad you stopped me,” Mal played with Evie’s necklace. “I was kind of hoping someone would. I’m so glad it was you,” She admitted quietly.

Evie nodded.

“Me too.”

**_(So glad you were around, when they said speak now)_ **

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Valentine's Day <3
> 
> Thank you to @sunlitdaze for being the best beta reader (and best friend) a gal could ask for <3


End file.
